Ohio at War

The invasion is now attacking Henry and Brown counties. We have 733530 gold, and 29854 war assets to start with. We purchased a barracks, cleared a road in Franklin county, monster trapped three times, assassinated in Carroll County for 5000, and purchased war assets to send aid to many of the counties under attack. We traded our looted items to the king for 129285 gold. We prospected 5 counties, finding two iron nodes, a gold node, and two gem nodes. We purchased an iron mine and a gold mine.

Visiting the Baron…

Upon our arrival at the City, security has been significantly heightened. All of the townsfolk are moving listlessly about their day, as if a depression or malaise has descended upon the city. We spoke with a town girl, and find out that the townsfolk don’t know why the guard has been increased. We could not detect any hints of magical auras or other signs of a malignant magical effect.

When we got to the Baron’s keep, we found that he and his staff were also speaking slowly as if confused. Troy noticed that the effect of this malaise was similar to the effects of a poison derived from the bark of the Ironmaw, a plant native to the marshes of the Abyss.

We asked the Baron why he has not come to the King’s aid. He responded that the province has too many problems to help the king. Specifically, part of the City is under attack by the Underdark. Also, five of his nobles, the ones who replaced the brothers, have gone missing. He provided us with their last known destination in the City. Finally, and most importantly, there is a rebellion fomenting in the City. He tells us where the hide-out is, but is unsure of how to get in. The Baron treated us like we were his subjects to order around.

The Rebellion…

We arrive at the hide-out which is a ruin of a wooden building with no windows or doors, and a drawing of an Ironmaw on the wall, with the word “Ironmaw” scratched above the door in Abyssal. We find that speaking the word in Abyssal transports us to the Abyssal Plane.

We find ourselves in a large cavern, which is hundreds of feet high and miles long. There is a small camp about half a mile away. There are trails of blood on the ground leading from the portal to the camp. We head towards the camp, and as we get closer, it appears to be a refugee camp filled with about a thousand peasants. They are not affected by the malaise. They are desperate and hungry, many of them having been there for weeks now. They were rounded up by the town guard and other members of the City, and sent to the Abyss, unable to return. With no food, they have had to institute a lottery system to commit cannibalism to survive. This has been going on for a few weeks, but no new shipments of refugees have arrived for a couple of weeks. We teach the word to an ex-priest, who will wait an hour and then teach the word to the refugees so they may return to the world.

We return to our plane, and try to find the bad guys. They guard barracks is empty, with a looted armory. We pull a peasant into a house and try to cure him of malaise. We fail, and leave the house when we hear troops heading to the house. We then go the last known location of the nobles.

The Nobles…

We investigate the house where the nobles were last seen. The house is actually an inn/meeting place. The inn has been trashed, and one of the nobles is lying on the middle of the room, dead. Troy speaks with her corpse, and finds that she was stabbed several times in the stomach by Oruk, with a flail. Oruk is one of the other nobles. When asked where Oruk went, she says “down” and points to the wall, where there are secret doors. She says that she and Oruk disagreed about the plan. Oruk is either a demon, or associated with demons.

Oruk Dukasht was a famous paladin the in the region. Tuthin Ir’gutheren was a famous cleric. Iliana was a cleric/warlock. Thomas Riddleweaver was a gnome warlock. Dead girl was famous for being the first humanoid successfully stabbed with a flail.

We open the secret doorway, and go several hundred feet down a tunnel of stairs. There, we meet bad guys in glorious battle. After battling or way through several rooms we find an uncompleted portal that seems to be tied to a life-force, within a day of being completed. We follow a tunnel down to a chamber carved out of obsidian, where we find the nobles, all of them kneeling on runes carved into the floor, in attitudes of supplication and being drained of their life-force. We fight a group of drow, a drider and a minotaur, and pull the nobles out of their positions, but not before the drider sacrifices Tuthin to cast a spell. We also discover that Thomas is a lich.

We wake up the blackguard and try to figure out what has been going on with the nobles. By speaking with the Blackguard and by reading the Lich’s journal, we find that the nobles had discovered the obsidian deposit, and along with it the temple to the demon. They began worshipping the demon, but also wished to sell the obsidian. This led to a rift in their group, explaining the dead noblewoman upstairs. We find that the blackguard is still a devout worshipper of the demon of the chamber. He is placed under arrest along with the other two nobles. We also noticed that each time we killed a combatant, it’s body released spores that slowly begins spreading a disease in the party.

The Ironmaw…

We deduced that the entire town was in the grips of a disease that is being spread on purpose. We went back to the original house with the portal to the Abyss. Upon breaking into the building we see a large grate leading the sewers, and can detect fumes coming out that might be carrying the disease. The party then delved down into the sewers to search for the source of the disease.
We activate a series of glyphs, and find ourselves in combat against a large Ironmaw plant and its flytrap minions. After a protracted battle the Ironmaw was defeated and the effects of the disease began to dissipate.

The Baron’s Fall…

Upon returning to the Baron, the party finds that he cannot remember anything from the last month. The Baron is very confused, but we try to fill him in as much as possible about the brothers and the nobles. When we explain that the brothers may have been wrongfully accused and that everyone had been under the effects of mind control, the Baron gets angry about the illicit affairs between his daughters and the nobles. He summons his daughters and begins arguing with them. Listening in, we find that one of the daughters has been killed in the keep; she was stabbed by one of the guards.

The party joins the Baron in caring for the body of the daughter, and spends the night in the keep. The next day, Troy communes with the daughter’s spirit. She gives him the name of her killer, and finds out it was done under orders. She then states that it was actually the Baron who ordered her killed; and when asked the reason she only responded “Twang”.

In that moment, the guards draw their swords and the party prepares to defend themselves. She then states that she and Twang intended to run away together. At that moment the Baron orders the attack. Paul kills the guards while David catches the Baron and knocks him unconscious. The daughter agrees to be raised from the dead. We tie up the Baron, and prepare to leave for the portal to the capital.

We arrive at the capital and present the Baron to the king. The King provides the cost to cast raise dead on the daughter. The King already knew much, as he had been conducting his own investigation. The Baron is jailed, and the King takes temporary control of the province. The daughter explains her side of the story. The remaining noblemen are also jailed.
We remain in the Capital for the rest of the week awaiting orders from the King, and administering to the distribution of war assets throughout the kingdom.

The adventurers went to speak to Barron Bloodbane in Washington. He and the whole town are very odd and slow. The adventurers think this may be some sort of magical poison. Bloodbane says that the kingdom is being invaded, 5 nobles (who replaced the brothers) are missing the barron gave them the last known place which they were, finally, the Barron has given party the location of a rebellion within the city.

The party has chosen to deal with the rebellion and have located the building. It is a nondescript cubic building with no doors nor windows. There is a picture of an Iron Maw plant on one of the walls. Above it is a word written in Abyssal reading Iron Maw.

The word, when spoken, transports the party to the Abyss. The party is transported to an area and there is a camp approximately 1/2 mile away. The camp is full of about 1000 people from the city who were rounded up over the last few weeks by the city guardsmen and sent to the Abyss. The party teaches the leading cleric the teleportation word and tells him to start teaching the word in 1 hours’ time.

The party returned to town and went to the guard tower to find it empty. The barracks and armory were also empty. The temple is also empty.

The party kidnaped a peasant, took him to an abandoned house and cast dispel magic on him to no effect. Commotion was heard and the peasant was knocked out, hidden in a closet, and the party left out a back window.

The party went to the last known location of the nobles, a small house, not too different from the other houses near it.

Entering the room, the party finds the whole place tore up. There was a dead woman (one of the 5 nobles) in the middle of the room stabbed to death. Upon casting speak with dead on her, she informed the party that Oruk (one of the 5 nobles) stabbed her to death with a flail over a disagreement over the plan. She called Oruk a demon when asked if he was an evil person. She pointed out a secret door leading underground where Oruk fled.

The party knowledge of the 5 nobles reveals Oruk is a famous paladin, Ir’thurgen was a famous cleric, an elvin cleric/warlock, Illiana Camphfor, and a gnome warlock, Thomas Wittlereader, who likes to tamper in the undead.

The party went underground after Oruk. The party descends what seems like 2-300 yards down to double doors at the bottom. The doors were opened. The room opens up to a fountain in the center with a demonic statue with the water leaving the horns. The fountain is surrounded by statues and fire pits which do not give off heat. The room has 3 exits, two tunnels heading down, and a central hallway with stairs headed down.

2 durger were brutally slaughtered before they even knew that they were being attacked. The adventurers searched the room, the fountain and the statues are not magical, the fire is burned out Ioun stones with light cast on them. The party cast lots for them and continue down the central hallway. They encounter 2 demon statues after a 10 foot descent down stairs and double doors. They do not seem to be locked. The doors were kicked in to reveal 2 more durger looking at something shiny down the hallway. They were again brutally slaughtered before they even knew that they were being attacked.

The party found a partially completed portal to another plane which contains a field of durger. The portal is being completed by a life force and the life force needs to be eliminated in order to stop its completion within a day’s time. The party continued down a sloping hallway. At the bottom are very large heavy doors opening to a huge obsidian deposit. The party hears chanting from beyond. They encounter broken down obsidian doors and peer through to see the remaining 4 nobles on their knees with their arms extended.

The party draws their weapons and charges into battle. The monk charges in and hits a durger. The summoner casts a wall of stone to seal up the nobles finding that it consumes the spell level in additional spells. This energy seems to be absorbed by a draider within the area. The samari attacks the other durger, doing significant damage. Area spells continue to widdle down the creatures. The summoner creates a pit that the draider and minator do not fall in. The draider channels the obsidian power and creates a sonic boom which does massive damage to the whole party. The draider was killed as the minator was turned into a newt. After all enemies have been eliminated, the protective wall is dismissed to reveal 3 nobles with one of them dead, Ir’thurgen. They also realized the gnome warlock, Thomas Wittlereader, is a lich.

Pulling them off of the magical runes leaves them unconscious. The party gathers the 3 unconscious nobles and reinvestigates the portal. The portal looks visibly stronger, however is no longer growing in strength. The monk knocks over a statue as the party is leaving and the crash of the statue infuriates the demon and starts to bring down the whole chasm. The party collapses the tunnel down from the house.

Upon Thomas Wittlereader is his diary. From the diary, the group of nobles found the religion of the demon. They bought the house and started digging. They found a large obsidian deposit and had a disagreement over what to do with the benefits of the obsidian. Oruk killed the 5th because she wanted to use the obsidian to further worship the demon and the other wanted to sell for profits.

They wake up Oruk and he is scared. He says that he will continue to worship the demon and seems to be completely converted to the religion. He has submitted to the punishment required by law.

The party then turned their focus to the condition the whole city seems to be suffering from. They went to further investigate the building which contains the teleporter. Inside the building is a huge grate which goes down to the sewer. This grate is much larger than normal ones so the party went in to investigate.

The party found a relatively open area of the sewer and 5 summoning runes. They activated the summoning runes. This summoned 12 fly traps and the Iron Maw. After a lengthy fight and the monk getting eaten by the Iron Maw, the party slayed the plant.

The party returned to the Barron and healed him. He is quite confused upon being cured from the disease. One party member suggested that he banished the 5 Franz brothers under the plant’s control. The Barron became infuriated with his daughters and summoned them. 3 came, 1 was found stabbed dead, and the 5th wasn’t found (the daughter who is with the King). The party suggested talking with the dead daughter the next day and he was willing.

The group and Barron gather around the daughter. They speak with the dead and find out that the Barron ordered her death to cover-up the relationship she was having with Twang Franz. The Barron ordered the guards to attack the party but the party make quick work of the guards and knock the Barron out. The party takes the daughter and the Barron to the king, request a diamond to bring the daughter back from the dead. She corroborates the story and the King lets the party know that he knew a large amount of this information already. The King sends Bloodwater to the jail and takes temporary control of the purple province.

The 6 adventurers went through a grueling process to determine who would be most capable of helping with the war effort.

The adventurers were bestowed with nobility and taken to King James’ quarters. War efforts were discussed and a plan made.

Further King James requires the group to talk to Barron Bloodbane in Washington county to determine why Purple Providence is not joining the war effort despite being attacked.

King James also wants the adventurers to investigate why the mithril mine in Gurnesy has stopped construction and attempt to remedy the production.

General John Paulding has been kidnapped by the Franz gang (a group of previous nobles, 5 brothers who were wronged by their Barron. They are a group of advanced ruffians. The Franz gang had relations with Barron Bloodbane’s daughters and nieces). There is a ransom note with a drop off in Nobel county for 200k gold. King James wants the Franz gang taken care of.

In Monroe Co. a Druid enclave needs assistance and will help with the war if given assistance. The enclave worships around a large sensu tree that produces special fruit. The fruit sustains an individual for 1 weeks time.

The party felt that John Paulding is the most pressing issue and set out to take care of the Franz gang and rescue John Paulding.

Upon finding the hut which was laid out in the ransom note, the party was displaced to a different plane and ambushed. With some convincing, the party was able to turn the Franz gang on the durger and drow pleading to their sense of desire to regain nobility.

The party went to talk to the daughters and nieces to find out what the true story is. After learning that the daughters and nieces were willing parties and that Barron Bloodbane would have lost his throne if they had married the Franz gang, he saw this as an opportunity to banish them from the area. Bringing this information to King James, he agreed to pardon the Franz gang if they help the war effort until the end.

The party then headed out to help the druids. It was found out that the druids had a major spider infestation in the sensu tree. The party eradicated them after a long battle and almost losing a member. The druids were being poisoned to be turned into demons. The area was sanctified, even though many druids were lost.

The party then took the trip to the mithril mine in Gurnsey to investigate the slowdown of construction. A group of Minitours and underdark had turned the mine into a dragon mill enslaving 3 red dragons. The party freed the dragons and took care of the interlopers. The party then sent extra money to finish the mine, adding to the war effort.

The landmasses of the world used to be connected in a Pangaea, but there was much war and suffering. All of the wizards came together to work a great magic called The Sundering, which split the world into many islands, separated by oceans and seas. Now, though there is some travel and trade between islands, there is little conflict between them.

The Island of Ohio is unified into one kingdom, with seven provinces. Recently, the Underdark began an invasion in the northeast corner of the island, in the red province, an invasion that if left unchecked will allow the Underdark to use Ohio as a beachhead to destroy the world. There are some indications that other islands are also being invaded, as trade has all but ceased between the islands.

Currently, much of Ohio does not believe there is actually any threat. Only the red, grey and blue provinces have joined in the war to protect Ohio. The king has tasked our party, great heroes all, to manage his armies and to lead the fight against the denizens of the Underdark.

Set Up

We started with 670,000 gold to start Ohio’s war machine. Before I logged off, we had purchased generals Harry March, and Conrad Allen. We had purchased an Engineer’s Guild and an Assassin’s Guild in the capital.

We also built up the infrastructure in Cuyahoga county, assassinated enemy troops in Carroll, prospected a gold mine in Franklin, and conscripted many monsters and regular troops to aid in the fighting.